(Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) In a study published in Nature, researchers describe that rock fragments produced unintentionally today by primates in Serra da Capivara National Park in Brazil resemble tools made deliberately 2.6 million years ago by ancestors of humans.

(McMaster University) New genetic research from an international team including McMaster University, University of Helsinki, Vilnius University and the University of Sydney, suggests that smallpox, a pathogen that caused millions of deaths worldwide, may not be an ancient disease but a much more modern killer that went on to become the first human disease eradicated by vaccination.

(Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research) Good news for archaeologists and natural scientists! You will be able to continue to use the radiocarbon method as a reliable tool for determining the age of artifacts and sample materials.

(Molecular Biology and Evolution (Oxford University Press)) A new study demonstrates strong genetic evidence that, when man first settled into the Tibetan plateau, the recently domesticated Tibetan Mastiff interbred with the Tibet grey wolf, and a DNA swap being introduced at two genomic hotspots is the key to acquiring their special high altitude powers. And in a spectacular coincidence, it turns out to be the same location, same gene, same mechanism -- interbreeding -- as in humans with an ancient hominid known as the Denisovans.

(Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) Eleven-thousand years ago, a Syrian community began a practice which would change man's relationship with his surroundings forever: the initiation of cereal domestication and, with it, the commencement of agriculture, a process which lasted several millennia. The discoveries, made at the Tell Qarassa North archaeological site, situated near the city of Sweida in Syria, are the oldest evidence of the domestication of three species of cereal: one of barley and two of wheat (spelt and farrow).

(The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) A collection of 780,000-year-old edible plants found in Israel reveals the plant-based diet of the prehistoric man and is the largest and most diverse in the Levantine corridor linking Africa and Eurasia.

(University of York) A team of international archaeologists believe a pair of mummified legs on display in an Italian museum may belong to Egyptian Queen Nefertari -- the favorite wife of the pharaoh Ramses II.

(University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Humanities) A new study shows that the process of cultivation and domestication of cereals occurred at different times across southwest Asia. The analyses of plant remains from archaeological sites dated to around 11,600-10,700 years ago suggest that in regions such as Turkey, Iran and Iraq, legumes, fruits and nuts dominated the diet, whereas cereals were the preferred types of plants in Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Israel. This means that Neolithic plant-based subsistence strategies were regionally diverse.

(McMaster University) An analysis of 2,000-year-old human remains from several regions across the Italian peninsula has confirmed the presence of malaria during the Roman Empire, addressing a longstanding debate about its pervasiveness in this ancient civilization.

(University of Waterloo) Industrial pollution may seem like a modern phenomenon, but in fact, an international team of researchers may have discovered what could be the world's first polluted river, contaminated approximately 7,000 years ago.

(PLOS) Middle Eastern Bitumen, a rare, tar-like material, is present in the seventh century ship buried at Sutton Hoo, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on Nov. 30, 2016, by Pauline Burger and colleagues from the British Museum, UK, and the University of Aberdeen.

(University of Southern Denmark) Chemical analyses of Tycho Brahe's exhumed remains have revealed that the world-renowned astronomer was regularly exposed to large quantities of gold until shortly before his death.

(PLOS) Cypriot-style pottery may have been locally produced as well as imported and traded in Turkey during the Iron Age, according to a study published Nov. 30, 2016, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Steven Karacic from Florida State University, USA, and James Osborne of the University of Chicago, USA.

(PLOS) Scans of bones from 'Lucy,' the 3.18 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis fossil, suggest that the relative strength of her arms and legs was in between that of modern chimpanzees and modern humans, according to a study published Nov. 30, 2016, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Christopher Ruff from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA, and colleagues.

(Washington State University) While the popular notion of the American Thanksgiving is less than 400 years old, the turkey has been part of American lives for more than 2,000 years. But for much of that time, the bird was more revered than eaten.

(Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters) A team of international scientists led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported recently the oldest fossil evidence of beta-keratin from feathers of a 130-million-year-old basal bird from the famous Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota.

(University of Cambridge) Thought to have arrived from China in 2000 BC, latest research shows domesticated rice agriculture in India and Pakistan existed centuries earlier, and suggests systems of seasonal crop variation that would have provided a rich and diverse diet for the Bronze Age residents of the Indus valley.

(Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) Just as astrophysicists and physicists depend on telescopes and particle accelerators which are often shared by several countries to carry out observations and experiments, researchers into cultural heritage are about to share a network of facilities and equipment located across Europe in order to advance their research projects into preservation and restoration.

(University of York) A subtle change occurred in our evolutionary history 100,000 years ago which allowed people who thought and behaved differently -- such as individuals with autism -- to be integrated into society, academics from the University of York have concluded.